Custom JSON preset file support

[dezertaudio]

Hi, I’m working on a HISE FX plugin and wanted to ask whether there is any safe way in Hise to package native .preset files into a single custom bank file without losing preset data.

What I was trying to do:

• export a whole preset bank into one portable json file
• then import that file back into the plugin and recreate the original .preset files

My first attempt was:

1. read each .preset with loadFromXmlFile()
2. store the returned object inside a JSON container
3. write that container with writeObject()
4. read it back with loadAsObject()
5. recreate each preset with writeAsXmlFile()

Problem:
This appears to be lossy for real HISE preset files.
A native preset contains many repeated <Control> elements, and loadFromXmlFile() seems to collapse repeated child tags into a single object entry, so after round-trip only one control survives instead of the full preset.

So my question is:
Is there any HISE-supported way in script to preserve the raw contents of a .preset file for single-file bank export/import?

More specifically, is there any API in Hise for:

• reading a file as raw text/string
• reading raw bytes/binary
• copying files into/from an archive-like container
• base64 encode/decode
• or any other safe way to round-trip a .preset file exactly

Any recommended approach here would be really appreciated.

[David Healey]

Sounds like something that could easily get messy. What's the end goal?

[dezertaudio]

@David-Healey essentially just to be able to export and import user preset banks. It seems like Hise cant import folders though? So I was trying to find another way

[David Healey]

@dezertaudio said in Custom JSON preset file support:

essentially just to be able to export and import user preset banks.

If you're using the stock preset browser this functionality is built in.

[dezertaudio]

@dezertaudio ah I'm using a custom preset browser though. Do you think Hise could ever get a raw string read/write API? @Christoph-Hart

[David Healey]

@dezertaudio said in Custom JSON preset file support:

I'm using a custom preset browser though.

Are you using a custom preset format as well?